Sitarist Ustad Usman Khan was 20 when he first met Osho. That was in the year 1962. “Osho was then called Acharya Rajnish and he was to come to Pune all the way from Jabalpur. Before delivering his discourse, he would meditate for half an hour in the morning. The committee members, who were organising his discourse, were meeting different musicians, to check if it was possible for them to play their music while Osho was meditating. They mentioned that it was not going to be concert music. When they came to me, I liked the whole idea and went there to perform,” recalls the artist, who would be performing on March 3, during the Osho Spring Festival. The session is titled ‘Silent Sitting with Ustad Usman Khan’.
Music is a prayer
The artist informs that he would be playing meditative music during the session, he would not be accompanied on a tabla, and there would be no speedy turns.
“People at these concerts also don’t clap or react if they like something, they sit very quietly and they also meditate,” says Ustad Khan.
Reminiscing about his first performance alongside Osho, he says, “When I sat to perform, Osho, was on my right, dressed in an orange kurta and lungi. There was an audience of nearly 1000 people sitting before us, at 7 in the morning. The venue was an open space in a Sangavi factory. I remember I played only the aalap part and it was very impressive. Everybody liked it and I enjoyed it myself too. After that, I started getting invitations from Rajnish Ashram, when they formed the Friends of Osho.”
When asked if such performances bring about a change in his mindset, if the meditative approach towards music has to be innate, the artist agrees. He says, “Yes, it comes from within. Actually, Indian classical music and meditation go hand-in-hand. My music leans towards meditation, so I enjoy playing it. I am the sixth generation musician in my family and for us, music is ibadat, sadhana. Ibadat to me means meditation.”
The genealogy
Ustad Usman Khan’s grandfather is Ustad Rehmat Khan, who is responsible for the present form of sitar – he designed it as a seven string instrument from the original three. Usman Khan’s father, Ustad Abdul Karim Khan taught music at Karnataka University’s Dharwad college.
“We were a family of vocal musicians before my grandfather decided to study instrumental music. In those days, rudra veena was very popular. He learnt it from Bande Ali Khan, who was a saintly person. After his training ended, he instructed my grandfather not play in public concerts and play only for himself, meditate on music. My grandfather wanted to be a performer. But he also didn’t want to disregard his guru’s wish. So he decided to learn to play the sitar. In those days, the sitar wasn’t like what we see today. He changed the system of tuning, strings and so on,” says Khan of his grandfather, who was one of the Navratnas in the Maharaja of Mysore’s court.
The one thing that Khan learnt from his father and grandfather was to shun commercialism, to not make commercial gains from the art. “I have been travelling to many cities, to many countries. I also teach at my institute, Naad Mandir in Pune. But I perform and teach to express myself,” he says.
Teaching music
The artist, wherever he is performing, considers it as his responsibility to represent Indian classical music. Whenever he is asked to speak abroad about our music, he describes it as, ‘The Indian classical music is the most modern music today’.
He elaborates, “Take Raga Yaman, Raga Malkauns or Raga Todi, they have been sung and played for more than 100 years now. They will also be played for another 50 or more years. The point is they never get old. The theoretical format of the raga is same, but the musician who plays it, will play differently. It depends on his/her creativity.”
“As artists, we know the theoretical form of any raga. But the kind of music we produce is attuned to both the theory and practice. I always say that I have got 20 strings on my sitar, which I have to tune very carefully. When all the strings are tuned properly, only then you can play good music. But it is also very necessary to ensure that our inner strings (our mind) are tuned according to the raga we have decided to play. That’s how the music flows,” he adds.
Khan also believes that there is a difference between appreciating music and studying it. “I had an all night concert in Paris in 1985. I had a repeat audience and what I fathom from it is that the people felt my music, they reacted, related to it on an emotional level. Whereas those who want to study and perform our music need to put in years of training,” the artist clarifies.
The sitarist has a few students coming in from different parts of the country and world to Pune to train with him.
“I have to inculcate in them the foundation of our culture, the Indian way of writing music (notations) and then explaining to them the creativity, imagination, aesthetics of how you look at music. My teaching also changes from person to person. As a guru, I have to study my students, their pluses and minuses to ensure they are shaping up properly,” he adds.
ST Reader Service
Ustad Usman Khan will perform at Osho International Meditation Resort, Osho Chuang Tzu on March 3, 7.30-8.30 am onwards
